POVCOMP 2004: Welcome!



		This site is provided for both historical interest, and of course also to allow the perusal and viewing of the entries made to POVCOMP 2004. The competition is long over but the work of these artists remains here for your enjoyment ... have fun!



		The Persistence Of Vision Raytracer ('POV-Ray') is a freely downloadable cross-platform application that implements the raytracing algorithm, which is a technique for simulating the physical behavior of light utilizing software-based mathematical models. It can be used to generate photorealistic images that resemble objects in the real world, or to visualize 'virtual' objects that do not physically exist. It has been used worldwide - and even out of it - both by hobbyists and artists, and by educators and professionals in numerous fields including biochemistry/protein research, medicine, architecture, engineering/product design, and mathematical visualization. More information about raytracing can be found in this POV-Ray tutorial and at oyonale.com's ISS page. For an eye-pleasing sample of what can be done with POV-Ray, see our Hall of Fame. The aim of POVCOMP 2004 is to show the full potential of POV-Ray. All artists are invited to participate and create groundbreaking images with POV-Ray to win one of 25 neat prizes from our sponsors (total retail value in excess of $14,000).



		The results for POVCOMP 2004 are available. Entries that are not in the top 25 will not receive a formal ranking (or score) due to the number of submissions (104 in total). We would like to thank our sponsors Appro, AMD, Zazzle, and Planet Mirror for making this competition possible, plus our judges Dennis Miller, Evan Hallein, David Hook, Gilles Tran, Lance Birch, and Juha ('Warp') Nieminen for taking time out of their busy schedules over the past two weeks to rank the entries. Be sure to check out the zazzle povcomp gallery, where you can purchase posters of all the winning entries!



		Primary results have been determined and will be made available today (US time). All entrants who submitted an image will be emailed. Initially only the entries that receive prizes (the top 25) will be put on view ; the remainder will follow within a day or so. Special Mentions will be awarded in the subsequent days. Wed, 16 Feb 2005 Entries have closed and are now being reviewed by the judges. There were over 100 completed submissions, and a quick preview shows some very good work has been entered. Results will be announced at LinuxWorld in mid-February. Thanks to all who participated! Thu, 3 Feb 2005 Due to the number of entrants who reported that they could not complete their work in time, a decision has been made to extend the competition deadline to January 31, 2005. In retrospect we can see that the original time allowed (only 10 weeks) was just too short. All entrants will receive an email regarding this shortly. Entries already submitted will be able to be unsubmitted at the author's option, so as to enable more work to be done on them. Entries that do not get unsubmitted will remain submitted and will be included in the judging round as if nothing had happened. Mon, 25 Oct 2004 We have relaxed the rules for detail views slightly by reducing the requirement from 1/100th of the image area to 1/25th. We have also added an example section to make things like this clearer. Fri, 10 Sep 2004 The rules page has been updated. Also, we have added some guidelines for your information. Fri, 6 Aug 2004 If you want to contact us, please visit our feedback page. You can also engage in discussion about the competition in the new POV-Ray competition forum.